By Steve Holland and Daphne Psaledakis
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States said on Friday it was concerned about the Russian Wagner Group's destabilizing activities in Africa and accused the leader of the mercenary force of helping to engineer the departure of U.N. peacekeepers from Mali.
The U.S. has information indicating Mali's transition government has paid more
than $200 million to Wagner since late 2021, White House national security spokesperson John Kirby told reporters.
Kirby said Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, who led an aborted mutiny against the Kremlin last weekend, helped engineer the departure of the United Nations peacekeeping force, known as MINUSMA, "to further Wagner's interests."
"We know that senior Malian officials worked directly with Prigozhin employees to inform the U.N. secretary general that Mali had revoked consent for the MINUSMA mission," Kirby said.
The U.N. Security Council voted on Friday to end the mission. Earlier this month, Mali asked the U.N. peacekeeping force to leave "without delay", citing a "crisis of confidence" between Malian authorities and the decade-long U.N. mission.
Two days before, the country's interim president, Colonel Assimi Goita, said on Twitter he was very satisfied with a phone call he had with Russian President Vladimir Putin, which he described as "direct and sincere".
Kirby said that despite the money paid by Mali to the Wagner Group, which a week ago launched an aborted armed mutiny in Russia, the security situation in the country has not improved.
Kirby's comments marked another step in the U.S. effort to push back against Wagner's influence in Africa. The U.S. Treasury Department on Tuesday imposed sanctions on four companies in the United Arab Emirates, Central African Republic and Russia it accused of being connected to the Wagner Group.
Kirby said Washington had seen no indication that Wagner was decreasing its intent to exploit African countries, "despite the events of last weekend."
Both Russia and Mali have said Russian fighters there are not mercenaries but trainers helping local troops fight a decade-long insurgency by Islamist militants.
Mali's leaders seized power in a 2021 coup and brought in Wagner after asking a French military mission to leave.
(Reporting by Steve Holland, Daphne Psaledakis and Doina Chiacu in Washington and Bate Felix in Dakar; Editing by Daniel Wallis)
